The Toyota Prius has become the flagship car for those in our society so environmentally conscious that they are willing to spend a premium to show the world how much they care. Unfortunately for them, their ultimate ‘green car’ is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer.

Before we delve into the seedy underworld of hybrids, you must first understand how a hybrid works. For this, we will use the most popular hybrid on the market, the Toyota Prius.

The Prius is powered by not one, but two engines: a standard 76 horsepower, 1.5-liter gas engine found in most cars today and a battery- powered engine that deals out 67 horsepower and a whooping 295ft/lbs of torque, below 2000 revolutions per minute. Essentially, the Toyota Synergy Drive system, as it is so called, propels the car from a dead stop to up to 30mph. This is where the largest percent of gas is consumed. As any physics major can tell you, it takes more energy to get an object moving than to keep it moving. The battery is recharged through the braking system, as well as when the gasoline engine takes over anywhere north of 30mph. It seems like a great energy efficient and environmentally sound car, right?

You would be right if you went by the old government EPA estimates, which netted the Prius an incredible 60 miles per gallon in the city and 51 miles per gallon on the highway. Unfortunately for Toyota, the government realized how unrealistic their EPA tests were, which consisted of highway speeds limited to 55mph and acceleration of only 3.3 mph per second. The new tests which affect all 2008 models give a much more realistic rating with highway speeds of 80mph and acceleration of 8mph per second. This has dropped the Prius’s EPA down by 25 percent to an average of 45mpg. This now puts the Toyota within spitting distance of cars like the Chevy Aveo, which costs less then half what the Prius costs.

However, if that was the only issue with the Prius, I wouldn’t be writing this article. It gets much worse.

Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.

The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.

“The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside,” said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.

All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesn’t end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce?

Wait, I haven’t even got to the best part yet.

When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.

Through a study by CNW Marketing called “Dust to Dust,” the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.

The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.

So, if you are really an environmentalist - ditch the Prius. Instead, buy one of the most economical cars available - a Toyota Scion xB. The Scion only costs a paltry $0.48 per mile to put on the road. If you are still obsessed over gas mileage - buy a Chevy Aveo and fix that lead foot.

One last fun fact for you: it takes five years to offset the premium price of a Prius. Meaning, you have to wait 60 months to save any money over a non-hybrid car because of lower gas expenses.

Wow, VERY interesting and ironic. If you don't believe the study, take a look at the satellite image of the Prius' battery mining area with the acid rain. You'll see no trees, a lot of brown land and a NASTY hole in the ground.

I knew about the economical drawbacks of the Prius (costing twice as much as a comparable car and the enormous repair costs for battery replacement, cancelling out all fuel savings) but I never knew how bad they were for the environment to manufacture.

Oh, I don't care about the "green"-ness of it. I care about gas mileage baby.

That Guy

03-15-2007 11:26 AM

Re: Ditch the Prius for a Hummer to save Earth!

wow, that's fairly damning.

my dad bought a used insight, and ti actually does get 60mph AND it was cheap (since it was slightly used).

EternalEnigma21

03-15-2007 11:44 AM

Re: Ditch the Prius for a Hummer to save Earth!

you can get a prius with navigation, leather, jbl 6disc, smart key, backup camera, hid lights, fog lights, side airbags, etc... for under 30k... that alone is a pretty good value based on other cars with the same equipment, and the fact that it has the highest resale value of any car in america adds even more value to the car.

I'm not seeing a huge premium price difference between them and any other cars on the market....

on top of that mining and manufacturing in general always has negative effects on the environment, whether its nickel or any other mined and refined material...

I wonder what the dead spot would look like over the golden triangle in southeast texas, which is the largest concentrated industrial area in the country....

There's wildlife all around that area... its amazing that the mining of nickel is such a harsh thing... never knew that...

as far as the epa estimates, toyota is telling me they don't know what that's all about and I have alot of customers that are actually getting 50+ mpg on avg in their prii, so I don't know why they would change that estimate...

This is a problem with battery powered cars. There is a similar problem with ethanol--it takes lots of energy to make the fuel, so you get little savings.

However, one benefit of the Prius and other green initiatives is to create a competitive market for green technology. Already you are getting better batteries, and the fact that people have demonstrated that they'll spend extra for a prius shows there's a market, promoting investment capital.

So it's not all bad.

Further, the Hummer is way worse than other non-hybrids. Buy the most fuel-efficient gas engine you can--save on gas, and save the world. Hummer's are bad, m'kay. Unless they're the other sort of hummer... ;)

That Guy

03-15-2007 01:13 PM

Re: Ditch the Prius for a Hummer to save Earth!

the better battery has been a technological plague for decades. while everything else has advanced by unbelievable leaps, the battery simply hasn't gotten much better :/

TheMalcolmConnection

03-15-2007 02:12 PM

Re: Ditch the Prius for a Hummer to save Earth!

[quote=JWsleep;288124]This is a problem with battery powered cars. There is a similar problem with ethanol--it takes lots of energy to make the fuel, so you get little savings.

However, one benefit of the Prius and other green initiatives is to create a competitive market for green technology. Already you are getting better batteries, and the fact that people have demonstrated that they'll spend extra for a prius shows there's a market, promoting investment capital.

So it's not all bad.

Further, the Hummer is way worse than other non-hybrids. Buy the most fuel-efficient gas engine you can--save on gas, and save the world. Hummer's are bad, m'kay. [B][I]Unless they're the other sort of hummer...[/I][/B] ;)[/quote]

But think of the gas used by the chicken head driving in her daddy's Suburban to come and perform the aforementioned hummer. Booty calls use gas too!